IN AN age of instant online feedback, every customer’s view counts.

So Brian Gaunt says he and his management team at Home Delivery Network (HDN) have made it their mission to improve the service the firm offers.

The company has come in for fierce criticism online from people who have failed to get their parcels delivered. Mr Gaunt says that type of criticism has been taken on board, and HDN now offers its retail partners a range of options they can in turn offer their customers.

“Two years ago, all we had to offer was a delivery between 7am and 7pm,” he said. “If you were in, you were in. If not, we’d bring the parcel back.

“Patently, that’s not what the customer wants. It’s not what I would want as a customer.”

HDN has introduced more flexible delivery times, as well as a service that texts householders to let them know a delivery is due.

It offers an “avoid the school run” service, when it pledges to deliver between 10am and 3pm so parents can guarantee they can get to or from school. Customers can also call the dedicated HDN call centre, run by Knowsley outsourcing firm Vertex, to arrange delivery times.

But, crucially, it is not up to HDN to decide whether individual online retailers choose to offer customers those flexible delivery options.

“We offer morning, afternoon, evening and Saturday services,” he said.

“We promote all these services.

“What we cannot do is force retailers to add them to their web proposition.”

Similarly, when it comes to delivering parcels, HDN can only operate with the information its clients give it. If a retailer does not tell it where a customer would like their box left, then a driver will never know – and will take the parcel away again.

HDN is also looking at ways it can use social networking sites to respond quickly to customer complaints online.

“We don’t want to be blogged. It harms our reputation. We want to work with people to put the best solutions in place.”